PghDragonMan: This earlier work is more lyrical and is a milder, and more condensed, version of the philosophy expressed by this work.

bigtent21: "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" are becoming more relevant as we head into 2009. Large Government Buyouts and Regulation are the scourge of Atlas Shrugged and the outright sponsoring of mediocrity predominates The Fountainhead. Rand can be long-winded, but these two books are must reads regardless of your own personal beliefs.… (more)

mcaution: Gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of Rand's magnum opus through this unique collection of scholarly criticism. See why after 50+ years in print it's selling better than when it was first published.

kswolff: Like "Atlas Shrugged," it is an aspirational epic about a strong-minded, pleasure-seeking woman triumphing over adversity and the herd mentality of her fellow humans. Sade, like Rand, was also a strident atheist given to writing characters give long speeches.

Perhaps the most significant book in post-war American literature, one which has regained popularity since the start of the economic crisis, Altas Shrugged is the embodiment of an ideal society, the ultimate vehicle for Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism. Weighing in at over 1,000 pages of tightly-packed print, it's also one of the longest novels in English literature. Is it any good?

Well, as a novel, Atlas Shrugged unfortunately falls flat, in ways that Rand's first novel, We the Living, didn't. There is foremost no humanity in the novel, the characters are dismembered, dessicated mouthpieces to Rand's philosophical diatribes, with everyone fitting neatly into 'good' and 'bad' camps. Rand herself claimed that using characters as symbols was never her intention: "My characters are persons in whom certain human attributes are focused more sharply and consistently than in average human beings." But what we are left with are flimsy apparitions, lobotomised automatons fulfilling the roles required of them to extol the virtues of her philosophy. Even this is taken to extremes, with one of the proponents delivering a 60-page long theoretical speech around which the rest of the novel might well be seen as scaffolding.

To complement this set of lifeless characters is a plot which similarly confounds understanding. In an America which technologically resembles the period in which Rand was writing, yet industrially feels set in an earlier period, and borrows heavily from the Great Depression, the main events and the decisions of the characters jar heavily with what the reader knows and expects from society. As another reviewer pointed out, what's missing is the overt understanding that the story takes place in a parallel world or a different timeframe, to create a genuine sense of credibility. True, there are some hints that push this novel into the realms of science fiction – a super metal alloy, power derived from static electricity, weapons based on sound waves etc. – but the world is definitely our own, even if the people and their decisions are alien. Key to the story is the gradual collapse of the economic system, and the disappearance of the champions of industry. What happens in Rand's universe when the creative minds of the world go on strike? Apparently, they settle down on the frontier and, working one month a year, create a fully-fledged miniature utopia. Personally, I imagine they'd starve.

A bad book can still be a good delivery vehicle for an interesting message. Yet this unwieldy book fails even to achieve the latter. For its mammoth length, Rand's message could have been relatively concise, but for the plot's repetitiveness. If you are interested in Rand's philosophy, there are plenty of other places to turn which will provide a far more succinct and detailed explanation, without the repetition or padding necessary for its delivery in novel form. Whether you find place for Rand's philosophy in your own, or like Gore Vidal consider it "nearly perfect in its immorality", there are simply better summaries available. For the converted, this is probably a wonderful book, but for anyone else it simply isn't worth risking the investment of time and energy.

No one can deny this book's enduring popularity. That alone gives rise to curiosity strong enough to keep it fresh in the public consciousness. But it is a far cry from a great piece of literature, and as an allegory, a philosophical harbinger, its ponderous and verbose nature should have the curious turn elsewhere. The novel opens with the question: "Who is John Galt?" A thousand pages of largely disappointing text will reveal the answer, but you'd be better served just reading the appendix. ( )

I'm so thrilled that I finally read this! I have sort of a love-hate relationship with this book. There were momentns when I thought I was crazy for reading it and other times when I loved it. It's very heavy reading. She could have chopped 400 pages off and it would have been a better novel, but I think the narcissist in her just wouldn't shut up. Perfect title and I loved discovering the meaning behind it. ( )

What a mastermind behind this book. The book is long-winded but I enjoyed every page. What helped me to understand, follow and stay interested in the story was reading it in sections among reading other books. The book was well written, organized, creative characters, and completely detailed and described context throughout the book. There was some tedious writing here and there but nothing that I wouldn’t say was distracting, in fact sometimes it helped me to remember situations and issues of a long story that has to hold and expand my memory more than usual.

The story takes place somewhere in the 1950’s and is based on the industrial, economic, government, and the society of the Unite States through Ayn Rand’s philosophy and how she wants the reader to interpret her words. Not everyone needs to agree with her generic philosophy but I for one appreciate what and how she was illustrating the pragmatic results of right and wrong vs. theories and principles.

Rand uses some ideal characters as Dagny Taggart who co-owns and runs a continental railroad, Francisco D’Anconia who owns copper mines and Hank Rearden who owns a large steel mill in modern America and through these symbolic characters and more Rand’s philosophy represents the descriptive forces of love, hate, politics, integrity and morality of two kinds of people, the creators and the leeches.

The whole concept of the story is based mainly on an industrial setting, where Ayn Rand demonstrates the destruction that would happen to the world should the “looters” take over, moving the focus of society from the individual to the combined structure of greed, from superiority to impartiality, and from productivity to idleness. The plot is one that is remarkably able to portray all the implications of unselfish and generous, socialistic views in a serious misled society. The result would be a sure case for the unrestrictive, capitalist state in which one thinks for oneself and creates severe effort to achieve and flourish. Rand explains this problem and represents its solution by using a character trait of personal interiority and selfish actions of the leading characters as Dagny Taggart, John Galt, and Hank Readen, among a handful of others who are leaders of productive, virtuous element if society representing capitalism, and industry. The “creators” are the pioneering people who use the power of their will and intelligence to better humanity. Meanwhile, Rand uses people like Dagny’s brother Jim Taggart, Mr. Thompson, Dr Ferris, and other characters of corrupt spineless people as the “looters” representing socialism, destruction, and the degradation of society.

Atlas Shrugged is an explanation of what has been, and always will be at the core of America prosperity, “Freedom and Capitalist”.

I’m not sure if this is a good review but instead of telling parts of the story I went for bases for the story. It was an easy understanding of Ayn Rand’s philosophy but hard to review. I felt it was a great enjoyable book…..”Who is John Galt”?( )

"inspired" and "monumental" but "(t)o the Christian, everyone is redeemable. But Ayn Rand’s ethical hardness may repel those who most need her message: that charity should be voluntary…. She should not have tried to rewrite the Sermon on the Mount."

"remarkably silly" and "can be called a novel only by devaluing the term" ... "From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To the gas chambers — go!'"

[Rand] deserves credit at least for imagination; unfortunately, it is tied to ludicrous naiveté. There could have been something exhilarating about the capitalists' revolt—except for the fact that what Rand presents is not so much capitalism as its hideous caricature. In fact, if her intention were to destroy faith in capitalism, she could not have written a book better suited to the purpose.

Perhaps most of us have moments when we feel that it might be a good idea if the whole human race, except for the few nice people we know, were wiped out; but one wonders about a person who sustains such a mood through the writing of 1,168 pages and some fourteen years of work.

I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned.

Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it.

Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns—or dollars. Take your choice—there is no other.

Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

John Galt is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought to men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains and he withdrew his fire—until the day when men withdraw their vultures.

Last words

He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar.

Wikipedia in English (1)

At last, Ayn Rand's masterpiece is available to her millions of loyal readers in trade paperback.

With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most popular novelists of the century, but one of its most influential thinkers.

Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit.

Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club